Let´s not hold our breath. No minister is going to resign and no one
will be fired. No minister will admit blame, take responsibility or
draw personal conclusions. They will not even take a good, hard look
at themselves.

The same is true of the prime minister, who was dealt a mortal blow
twice in one week (a world record, obviously) as he was chastised for
poor performance.

And so, the state comptroller´s report on the 2010 Carmel fire will
quickly disappear into the black hole that sucks in all the thick
tomes the state comptroller occasionally produces. The report before
this one dealt with the mishandling of the 2010 naval raid on the
flotilla to Gaza. In both cases, warnings went unheeded, and life
goes on.

In Israel, disasters come from a divine source; successes are all the
work of human agents. State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss, in his
report published yesterday, placed the responsibility for the
mishandling of the Carmel fire on Interior Minister Eli Yishai and
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz. Yishai said in response - during a
high-profile, somewhat cynical visit to the home of one of the
families who lost a loved one in the fire - that he will demand a
cabinet discussion. That is exactly the problem with him: For the
many years he served as interior minister, he frequently demanded
discussions, wrote letters, shouted and warned. For this, he was
awarded at least 30 positive remarks in Lindenstrauss´ report.

So is it any surprise that Yishai is having trouble living with the
report´s conclusion regarding his own responsibility? He is sure he
deserves a medal. If we were to wax sarcastic, we might say that he
sees himself worthy of lighting a torch in the Independence Day
ceremony.

Steinitz also doesn´t understand what the comptroller wants from him.
Since when is a finance minister responsible for the failures of
other ministries? Since when is a finance minister supposed to grant
every request? In the past few months, ever since Steinitz discovered
he was included in the comptroller´s draft report, he has made sure,
at every opportunity, to call the report "bizarre."

Beyond the personal aspects of the ordeal, which naturally attract
attention, the report tells the story of shoddiness. One more time:
shoddiness. Everyone knew that our fire and rescue service was more
suitable to a 19th-century town, but no one really did much. The
report reads like tragedy whose end is inevitable. And yet, it is
heartrending. Forty-four people lost their lives needlessly because
they were somewhere they should not have been.